Intent

While this posting is going to be more relevant to Black Belts than Queue Belt students, I believe there may be some benefit found within this post for everyone. As always, if there are any questions please post them in the comments so everyone can benefit from your engagement.

Intent is an integral part of the six harmonies of kung fu. Because it is more abstract than the overt physical properties of the art, it is one of the more difficult harmonies to understand and master. Intent is where you merge your energy with your power. It is what refines your technique and it is where mastery of the art lies.

In the past couple of months in the Black Belt Class, I have talked a lot  about intent. Specifically on how to keep intent pure. Because of the dynamic nature of a physical engagement, pure intent is only possible if we are constantly adjusting our intent to suit the evolving situation. The intent can't be to just focus on the specifics of the technique we are applying. If we do, we may fix all the other unintentional movements in our execution, but ultimately that is not the proper way. We need to adjust our intent at every point in time. My intent revolves around the fist coming toward me. After I deal with it appropriately, my intent shifts to the counter. Too many students are already thinking about their counter before they complete their block. Their intent is not pure so their block is not completely effective. 

Intent needs to change at every point in time, and time is not always linear (an explanation of that will have to come in a future posting or via questions). If we use the analogy of a line where the beginning of the line is the start of the technique and the end is the end of the technique, a white belt may have 3 points along the line where they are aware and where they are capable of adjusting their intent. A black belt however may deal with the exact same line but the difference is he has multi-million points on the same line where he is capable of adjusting and of which he is aware. This constantly updated intent makes a technique much more effective.

A good example of this 'line' analogy can be found in the dragon dance. When you watch dragon dance rookies practice, you see a lot of choppiness in the flow of the dragon. Even though there are nine individuals independently moving the dragon's body, some of them are not in sync with their teammates. This lack of synchronicity makes the dragon look like it only has three big segments rather than eight little segments. After a lot of practice the dance team starts to work together and their motions become more logically organized, transforming the dragon into a flowing, living entity. In the same way you will see the difference in the way a black belt moves and the way a white belt moves. This difference is from pureness of intent.

Again, this is written with black belts in mind so I suspect it may be out of range for some of you. If anyone has any questions, please post them as comments below.